The Best Lies Come From Partial Truths
by BouncingRayofSunshine
Summary: There has to be a villain to have a happy ending and there also has to be a hero that will save Arendelle from destruction. After running his from his past for years, Hans understands what part he must play, but perhaps it won't be what he suspects.
1. Prologue

There is a place, across the ocean, across the wide forests and curving valleys where magic began. It started in a secret, hushed and locked away, until a King broke the chains that bound it and took it for himself. He bestowed it on his sons, having three at the time and it sunk into their hearts, caging them with its power. The King ordered his three sons to tell no one, and destroyed anyone who found the knowledge.

His sons, he called them Meriya, Scolte and Skie, entranced by the power they began to learn of, turned a blind eye to the darkening soul of their father.

Years past, with the King's heart filling with want for power. He plotted to use magic against the rest of his sons, born after the third. Tymoth, Rigedeir, Methel, Walance, Aroan, Caten, Kieth, Quiont, Uorial. The King listed off their names as each was born, pasting sounds and motions together, only remembering the number. Nine, nine more sons to make into magiced soldiers. The queen, sickly and confined to her chamber, wept for her children that she never saw and wept double over for her husband who was fading into darkness. A miracle of sorts happened when the world looked bleak. The king searched his land but could not find magic again. He sent armies and tore apart towns in search, but he could not find a hint of magic to give to the nine sons.

In anger the King sat on his throne for days, pondering on how to satisfy his greed. He left months after, some say to another land in search for riches, others say for magic, once again but for which ever reason, the queen beckoned her sons. She arranged marriages for seven, and sent the two youngest to their studies.

"I can see what you cannot. So you must do what I cannot." She begged the three oldest sons. "Hide what you can, do not follow in your father's footsteps. Run if you must, but please." She had sent seven of her sons away in marriage, away from the King that she so dearly loved by feared. The youngest she could send to study in other castles in a short amount of time. She feared for the eldest, their powers had grown strong.

"He will not stay away, not with your powers here." The two eldest would not listen, Meriya and Scolte gathered there powers and strengthened them, but the third in line, Skie opened a window from his heart and found his mother's weeping face.

"What would you have me do?" He asked although he already knew that she wished for him to run, to be free of his father. "I will not leave. I will not discard my honor and the honor of this family." She shook her head idly. If not run, what could he do? She shook her head again with damp cheeks.

With the same silence, the King returned, finding his sons in other castles, or harnessing their powers and his wife pregnant with another child for him to capture. His attention turned from the sons that had left to chaos as he built his sons' power.

The queen called him Hans, praying over him and whispering ideas of justice. He husband did not visit the baby, did not acknowledge him more than he did a speck of dust. He was overwhelmed with the power his elder sons gave him.

Hans grew older, barely seeing his brothers, never meeting his father and as he read and studied he became used to the idea that his family has falling apart, and would likely take the kingdom with it.

"God is gracious" His mother repeated as she watched him turn into a men. "God is gracious". She died when he was thirteen.


	2. Chapter 1

Having twelve older brothers is just as bad as you think it would be. Not because they harass you or make you feel belittled, though in truth, even if I never see eleven of them somehow they do tend to make you feel belittled, even without their presence. But overall, no, it isn't because of the sheer number of them pilling up on top of my life to make it miserable. It's because of the number twelve. Twelve is a holy number, a magic number. That is what Skie tells me. There are twelve hues in a color palette, twelve followers of Christ in the Bible, twelve months of the year. Twelve. Twelve is a very natural, yet magical number. My brothers are natural and yet magical. Skie says "The other nine don't know they are magiced. But they are. Magiced. To be of magic, to have magic. That's what they are." Only the oldest three have magic. Skie forbids me from telling the rest. He said, "Their magic isn't my magic. My magic is given to me. But the other nine, they are magiced because of the world. The world is magiced and so they are as well, because we make up twelve." Twelve. That simply astounding number. Twelve. They are magiced because they are twelve, Twelve is the world and so the world is magiced.

I never really understood what he meant. But I got the point. I am not one of the twelve, so I am not magiced. I am the Thirteenth. I am not magical, it was not given to me, I was not born with it, and I will not use it. I was upset by this at first, I remember. Skie tried to comfort me by telling me that the other nine couldn't use magic. How does that make any sense? They are magiced, they are filled with magic but they can't use it, they don't even know they have it. But Skie can use it, and so can Meriya and Scolte, or so Skie says. For a terrible reason, that made me feel better, knowing that I wasn't the only one to not be able to use magic.

But then a thought struck me, perhaps five years ago, right before I started running. If they are magiced because they make up twelve, what does being thirteenth make me? It makes me utterly despicable. I am worth nothing. Thirteen is the number that proves to be a betrayer, that proves to be a hindrance to life itself. And I cannot escape it. Does that make sense? I am a betrayer, that is what it means to be thirteenth. I will betray, something, someone at some point and I can't stop it.

But I have no one left to betray. No one. My mother is dead. Nine of my brothers are who-knows-where. And the other three, are dead. They died four years and 11 months ago. Skie left me this book, filled with his words to go by. That's what it says on the first page. "I, Skie, left Hans this book, filled with my words to go by." To go by. I remember turning the pages, finding my brothers scrolling writing.

"Run away from there."

The first page told me to leave everything I'd ever known in four easy words. So I did. I ran, I kept my name, my title, but I ran. I'd never met my father, but as I boarded a boat for a distant country, I didn't think to look back.

I was surprised to find that after three years of travelling from city to city, I was not once beckoned back to the castle. My coins never ran out, everyone knew of my father and were more than eager to supply whatever I needed with fear in their eyes. Perhaps because my father killed his own sons, because they committed treason. Or perhaps, He did something to their city, to make them fear him.

I didn't want to think about either option. I ended up staying at inns, three months at a time before moving on to somewhere else. I read Skie's book to pass the time. I was just as curious to find out these secrets of Skie's as anyone would be, but I also just wanted to let them lie, run away from everything held in the now distant castle, and live anywhere I wished to live. But I knew I had to, and now I am so glad I read cover to cover, or I might not have come to know the thing I truly love most. Anna.


End file.
